They were protesting Islam, not law enforcement.
Besides, SWAT teams SWAT because most folks are not looking to fight police officers.
There were some pretty heavily armed civilians attending the rally. Folks are pretty fed up.
I went to the rally last night. I arrived around 9pm, towards the end. At first i was annoyed the cops had closed off all the surrounding streets, but then i realized it was probably a perimeter to thwart an attack. As i was walking up i passed some people leaving, some of them armed with guns, some carrying flags. I passed more police and a group of what looked like soldiers, though they may well of been a private militia. Either way they were the real deal. When i finally made it to the mosque, the police had divided the area by closing off the street all along the mosque, the pro-islam in front of the mosque, and the anti-islam people across the street. There was lively and emotional dialogue being exchanged. One islam supporter, a white guy, was very vocal, and visibly angry. He accused a veteran of disrespecting the flag because it was slightly frayed. He also brought up timothy mcveigh and seemed very satisfied that he had just won the argument. Some local black muslims (one carrying a side arm) engaged in a discussion with one of the “main” islam protesters. They kept asking why he was here, and he kept answering them, but his answers did not seem to satisfy them. Then the main cleric came and ushered them away through a gate behind us, making an uncomfortable situation. I saw two instances where the police stepped in to break up something, once, 2 ladies with flags went over to the pro-islam side, and another where some muslims were on the other side. As it was winding down, a consensus was reached from many of there that the rally was a success. I noticed there were some muslims wearing masks as I was leaving.
My point was, if the LEO decides to be very protective of the mosque, they won’t be on the biker side or neutral in a confrontation.